should my parents convert the money for my school fees to US dollars now?

I won't be attending college till Sep 2009. Should we take advantage of the USD's currently weak exchange rates vs the Singapore dollar (SGD), and convert adequate SGD to USD to pay for all 4 years of college tuition now, instead of later? I have a feeling the current exchange rate (1 USD = 1.37 SGD and rising) will be the lowest for some time. Or should I wait for it to drop again?

hmmmm of course, i'm not asking you guys to make a long-term prediction of trends - just a one-time one with regard to the current pseudo-recession in the US. /i think the recession is likely to end soon. what do you guys think :D

I think that the US is so dependent on imports right now that they cannot afford to let the value of their currency rise again. If imports of food, electronics, cards, clothing and oil suddenly were more expensive, the country would be headed for a real recession! If at all, the American government would have an interest to lower the value of their currency even more (-> better for us internationals!)

Isn't a fall in value of their currency bad for imports? That is, if they want their imports to be cheaper, they should make their currency stronger.

In 2003 (unsure about the actual time), 1 USD could buy approximately 1 EUR worth of goods from Europe, but now 1 USD can only buy 0.64 EUR worth of goods. However, I doubt the value of the USD is something that the US government could control anyway (well maybe apart from the Fed, but the Fed is too busy managing their way out of the "psuedo-recession" and the credit crisis right now).

As for the original question, more things to consider are the relative interest rates you will get parking your funds in USD instead of alternative currencies like SGD or even NZD or AUD (or perhaps even parking it in dual currency deposits, which is really the bank writing then selling an currency option on deposit at the predetermined strike rate and returning some of the money from selling that option to you as "interest" - see Dual currency deposit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more information).

i think it's best to start to save money for your education---start from now...
either you save it with SGD or USD... as for my parents..they bought some USD everytime it got lower..(you'll never know when it will get that low..)
so.. it's really like gambling.. hope youll get a good price..